Recently, the mobile analytics company Flurry released the results of a study that revealed that users are heavily favoring apps over mobile websites. Indeed, users are spending about 80% of their mobile usage time in apps.
This equals about 2 hours each day, far more than the 30 minutes spent browsing mobile websites.
As VentureBeat writer John Koetsier put it, “The mobile war is over and the app has won.”
The app usage breakdown is what you might expect, with games making up about a third of app usage time, and social media activity making up a fifth. Apps are even being used as substitute browsers, with users looking up a business inside the Facebook framework, as opposed to going to Google to find the business’s standalone website.
Shifts in user behavior like this only serve to fuel increasing app domination.
The number of apps used each day is still growing steadily, and has been for years. In 2010, the average user launched about 7 apps each day. Now, this number has risen to about 8. This is encouraging for app developers and small businesses that are considering publishing their own apps. While some feared that the market might be reaching a saturation point, and that consumers might be getting fatigued with downloading more apps, these fears have not been realized. Consumers’ appetites for apps continue to grow, demonstrating that the app market is still young, underdeveloped, and eager for increased input.
For small businesses, this is excellent news. Some business owners are hesitant to put their own app out because competition seems high and they don’t know if there will be any interest. Research continues to show, however, that consumers are still quite eager to get new apps. And because the market is underserved, this also means that those who publish apps in the near future are still getting in at an early phase of a sector’s development, which can lead to competitive advantages.
Essentially, for those small businesses considering whether or not to publish their own app – the time is now, and the benefits are still robust.